German director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski produced some incredible films together, having collaborated five times throughout their careers, per IndieWire. As it turns out, the pair knew each other since they were teens, with Herzog having met Kinski when he moved into the same Munich apartment building he lived in (via The Guardian). When they began working together, their professional relationship was messy and volatile, and although their movies were legendary, so were their spats off-camera.
The most turbulent flick the pair worked together on was 1972’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” which took place in Peru. According to IndieWire, by this time in Kinski’s career, he was already well-known for being an incredibly difficult actor to work with, even threatening to walk off the set after a disagreement with Herzog. As the director later recalled Kinski packing up his things and getting ready to leave, he bluntly told him, “If you leave the set now, you will reach the bend — the next bend of the river and I will shoot you — will have eight bullets through your head” (via Far Out). Naturally, this was enough to get Kinski to stay.
Kinski’s dramatic antics during the filming of “Aguirre” didn’t just irk Herzog, however. As revealed by The Guardian, at one point, the Native Peruvians playing extras in the film actually offered to kill Kinski for Herzog, which he, of course, declined.
